Ugly Food Photo Contest 2011

Yes, folks, it's time once again for the annual Ugly Food Photo contest. Time for us all to scroll through our food porn to find the one really ugly picture that made food look, not appetizing and delicious but, rather, unappealing and perhaps even downright disgusting.

The judging will be done by me and My Beloved, who have the distinction of having taken some of the ugliest food photos of all time. We will be looking at content (what did you eat?), technique (how sharp/clear is the photo, unless blurriness is intentional to enhance the photo or to hide mistakes), staging (sometimes, the plate, napkin, flatware, etc. can add truly grotesque elements), color and lighting (always a challenge for amateurs like us) and composition.

I rather like this photo of our dinner last night - cheesy couscous, overly charred sausages (note the artistic touch of the half-exploded end of the second sausage, and leftover purple cabbage-and-onion in which the nightmarish hue of the cabbage has infiltrated the onion, too. My Beloved didn't even finish this dinner - is anyone surprised?

So, dig deep and see if you can come up with a contender that will rival this hideously ugly meal. The deadline for submissions is Monday, March 7th. The judges will scrutinize each entry and report the winner a day or two later; their decision is final, but whining and kvetching from the losers is allowed. To submit, just leave a comment with a link to your photo in the comments section of this post.

The prize will be a new kitchen implement of the judges' choosing and, of course, the honor and cachet of having been named "Ugliest Food Photographer" for the year.